Stimulation of long-chain fatty acid uptake by dipyridamole in isolated myocytes

This study was designed to investigate the effects of the cardiovascular drug dipyridamole on fatty acid metabolism in isolated cardiac myocytes. Effects of dipyridamole on the oxidation of long-chain (palmitate) fatty acid, medium-chain (octanoate) fatty acid, and the carbohydrate intermediate (pyruvate) were determined by using isolated cardiac myocytes from both normal and diabetic rats. Dipyridamole increased palmitate oxidation in a concentration-dependent manner in both normal and diabetic myocytes. Maximal stimulation of palmitate oxidation (175% of control) was observed with 100 microM dipyridamole. In contrast, oxidation of octanoate and pyruvate was not affected. The stimulation of palmitate oxidation by dipyridamole persisted despite its removal from the incubation medium. In contrast to the effect in myocytes, palmitate oxidation was not affected by dipyridamole in isolated rat heart mitochondria. Palmitate uptake was increased by 2.5- and 1.6-fold when palmitate concentration was adjusted to 0.05 and 0.2 mM, respectively. Dipyridamole did not affect lipolysis in isolated myocytes. When dipyridamole (100 microM) and L-carnitine (5 mM) were added together to the incubation medium, palmitate oxidation was further increased to 223% of the control. The nucleoside transport inhibitor nitrobenzylthioinosine (NBMPR) failed to increase palmitate oxidation in isolated myocytes. Although palmitate oxidation in diabetic cells is much higher than that in normal myocytes, dipyridamole increased palmitate oxidation by 243% in diabetic myocytes over its baseline oxidation rate in normal cells. These results suggest that increased palmitate oxidation in isolated cardiac myocytes after dipyridamole administration occurs independent of effects on either the phosphodiesterase enzyme or nucleoside transport protein, but it may result from increased palmitate transport across the plasma membrane.